Missing 50ft Bridge

$100K Steel Bridge Dismantled, Stolen From Rural Area

NORTH BEAVER TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police are looking for a steel bridge worth an estimated $100,000 that was dismantled and taken from a rural area in Lawrence County.

Police said they believe a torch was used to cut apart the bridge, which measured 50 feet by 20 feet, near Covert's Crossing in North Beaver Township.



Resident Robert Obed, who owns property nearby, gave Channel 4 Action News' Keith Jones a tour of the heavily wooded and remote area.

"Its old beams are probably hundreds and hundreds of pounds per foot," said Obed.

Investigators said the bridge was taken between Sept. 27 and Oct. 5.

Read more: http://www.wtae.com/news/29413287/de...#ixzz1a8e7avLP

Old railroad bridge.

I'm just wondering how long it took them to haul it all out of there?

Originally Posted by Mick

I got a bridge I'd sell.

I got some land near ducktrap lol really cheap

Originally Posted by easyrecycle

LMAO!!!!

Why rob a bank when you can take a $100,000 bridge that easy....

now...they are going to come up with some new law saying you cant sell scrap bridges...

Think they;re referring to replacement cost.

Lets do some math, $100,000.00 dived by $350.00 ton received as scrap, bridge would have weighed 285.71 tons. Never happen for a 50ft x 20 wide bridge which was probably installed originally by a logging company.

you dont think an old railroad tressel bridge would weigh that much gus?

Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

you dont think an old railroad tressel bridge would weigh that much gus?

I just do not think the bridge is worth what the authorities are claiming.

I wonder if the scrapper owned the equipment he used to lift and haul said bridge. More than likely stolen, fellow once told me never use your own money in a venture.

Wonder if this bridge is visible on Google Earth.

WOW...........................
I guess things are worse than I thought

That's about 27 miles north of me.

I'm with Gus. No way that number is correct. If it were, that'd mean a 50 foot span would weigh in at 5.74 tons/foot.

My experience has been that the news media always gets some of the facts wrong. Whether it was the scrap value, or the size, or the dates, or the location--something in that story will have been reported wrong. Heck, the video has multiple contradictions to the station's own printed version of the story. And unless the guy knows something about dismantling bridges, his opinion is worth very little.

Wonder if this bridge is visible on Google Earth.

Look around N40.994790, W80.416596, and you'll find the intersection of Brewster Rd and Coverts Rd. The guy interviewed in the video has an address on Brewster, so you'd think "Covert's Crossing" would be nearby. Darned if I can find a bridge matching the description anywhere near there.

On further investigatio, if you're really interested, you can go to the USGS site and download an older topo map of that quadrant, which shows the railroad line. Even looking at the two side by side on the screen, and being able to see where the tracks were, I still can't see the bridge on GE.

An update to this story.

The bridge, designed to carry vehicles along a private road on the property of New Castle Development, weighed around 30,000 pounds and was valued around $100,000, according to police.

The bridge was likely sold as scrap. Depending on the market quote, 30,000 pounds of steel could sell for between $3,000 and $6,000.

So, the 100 grand number is obviously replacement cost.

The bridge was made of corrugated steel and had a steel web-type deck and I-beam substructure.

Huh? Made of corrugated steel? :confused:

Originally Posted by High Voltage Processing

Not to change the subject but I have a lot of scrap metal that I have recently come across for sale cheap!

Broker it to someone on the forum.

Well, they made an arrest!

http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article...tern_Pa_bridge